Break into Break

The work of Alex Liverani, submitted at Colorno Life Photo 2014, began in the first months of 2014 as a visual research into the City, London’s financial and economic core. Walking through the streets of one of Europe’s most intricate metropolis with camera in hand, Alex intrudes into small moments of private solitude and relax away from the endless hours of work: a cigarette, a breath of fresh air, a break from the hustle and bustle of the office, a tale of pensive, sleepy, or mostly absent stares, far from the photographers lens. This is “Break time break in” a visual investigation into fragments of daily life (work breaks) constantly repeating in an urban setting such as the City, but they are only captured when they become the measure of an almost surreal urban space. These snapshots – whose pattern is deliberately repeated, without too many changes – are dominated by rationalist architecture, the geometry of space is drawn by the light, where the lines, the rectangles of walls and windows, shadows, profiles and frames strike more than the volumes. There is no sky in these images, but textures, materials, and shades of grey – that would be such, perhaps, even without the black and white – that give the measure of the weight and dimensions of these places that seem depicted. The imperfect balance of lines and shapes that dominates the shots makes the people who inhabit them – absolutely oblivious of this spatial quality – the element that anchor’s the image to reality, thus, authenticating the most genuine street photography which was at the same time deliberately and consciously sought out for its aesthetical quality. The strip of cement, an element in the foreground, a perpendicular not perfectly centred line are the hints of the freshness and authenticity of the work, which, although it starts from a limited vision of the world, it does not bend the truth of photography to the search of the absolute. It is not that obvious then to square the circle, among lights, people and forms, as it is not easy – says the author – to find a sunny day in London.